Civil Engineering Reference
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temperature, humidity, and air contamination of the building, along with means to
protect both structural elements and equipment integrity and occupant safety (such
as fi re safety system) through proper air delivery, ventilation, and exhaust systems.
It should be noted that the mechanical engineer should also familiarize himself
with the other general building codes as well. These codes are mostly concerned
with the building architectural requirements. Of course these architectural regula-
tions and requirements sometimes play a decisive role in decision making of the
mechanical engineer in his pursue of mechanical design. Among others, the main
topics discussed in building codes are building use and occupancy classifi cations
and requirements, limitations in height and area of the construction, fi re resistance
and fi re protection requirements, and safeguarding during the construction.
The energy conservation codes are generally design guidelines which depict the
regulations and requirements for designing a building with minimum acceptable
energy effi ciency provisions. One of these standards (ICC 2012b ) allows for either
prescriptive or performance-based approaches. The guidelines usually at the begin-
ning of the building design process require the designer—based on the applicable
conditions—to use these codes to select and specify design parameters such as
minimum acceptable thermal characteristics of the building envelope components,
minimum effi ciency for the mechanical equipment, minimum lighting and power
effi ciency, and duct and pipe insulation characteristics.
In addition to the overall mechanical and building codes, which international
codes (ICC 2012a , c ) written by the council of international codes are the most
commonly used among them, other agencies or societies such as ASHRAE has
developed additional specifi c standards and guidelines in order to make the design
and construction process even more clear, straightforward, and safe. For example
one of these standards ASHRAE standard 15 (ASHRAE 2010a ) is developed to
depict a safe framework for designing, construction, installation, testing, inspection,
and operation of mechanical system that are working based on utilization of a refrig-
erant cycle. This has been proven that different refrigerants represent big danger
for people and environment safety specifi cally when there is a path of leakage of
these agents out of a refrigerant machine. Therefore the refrigerant leakage from
refrigerant machines should be monitored and means for alarming, identifying and
correcting these incidents should be developed clearly. This standard in addition to
representing the classifi cation of the refrigerant systems also focuses on means of
people, building, and environment safety in regard to the danger of refrigerant
chemical characteristics.
Providing a building with high indoor air quality is one of the most important
aspects of a high performance building design and operation. Indoor air quality has
a direct effect on health, comfort, and productivity of the occupants. The main target
of ASHRAE standards 55 (ASHRAE 2010b ) is to defi ne the thermal conditions
under that the majority of the occupants who are living and working in that building
feel comfortable. In achieving this target, the standard requires designing with
multiple indoor environmental factors and of course personal factors in mind.
According to related literatures, a complete and meaningful thermal comfort design
cannot be achieved without addressing metabolic rate, clothing insulation, operative
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